Biography
Frank Bennett built his reputation by recasting alternative rock numbers in a lounge idiom, much as Richard Cheese and the Mike Flowers Pops had done, drawing his stage name from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. The same early-1990s impulse that later produced Pat Boone’s heavy-metal collection In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy was only beginning when Bennett, born David Wray, appeared in a Rat Pack tribute act billed as “Tony Sinatra.” His first taste of music arrived when his older sister’s boyfriend presented him with a drum kit to keep the boy from revealing their activities; as an adult Bennett moved to saxophone, an instrument featured on his own releases, and subsequently concentrated on vocals. Among the groups he joined were the Zarsoff Brothers, the Tabasco Brothers, Ross Wilson’s Rock House, the Chris Turner Band, and Hard Word, a Blues Brothers tribute ensemble. For four years he also hosted the retro-video program Vinyl Revival on TV1 while completing his pair of lounge-covers albums. The 1996 release Five O’Clock Shadow concentrated on grunge material and contained treatments of Pearl Jam’s “Better Man” and Radiohead’s “Creep,” the latter of which reached number 95 in radio station JJJ’s Hottest 100 poll that year. Cash Landing, issued in 1998, turned instead to the 1980s and included the Pet Shop Boys’ “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” and Australian Crawl’s “Beautiful People.” Bennett further served as support act for like-minded artists Tom Jones and Burt Bacharach during their Australian tours and appeared briefly in the film The Dish.
Albums